College of San Mateo is currently looking for a new vice president of instruction, dedicated to providing students the best support services available to ensure they graduate on time.

According to the Office of Instruction’s website, some of their goals are to provide a top notch curriculum driven to push students forward, provide an open academic learning environment, and successfully implement changes to the curriculum based on student feedback and needs.

CSM has yet to announce when it will choose a candidate, but as of lately, all five candidates spoke at CSM from April 6-8 to share their objectives.

Acting vice president of instruction Danni Redding Lapuz, will hold the position until a candidate is chosen. CSM has selected five candidates as finalists.

Gregory Anderson

Gregory Anderson, interim vice president of Academic Affairs and Student Learning at Ventura College, has over 30 years of experience in the education industry. Anderson was also former Cañada College vice president of instruction, vice president of Institutional Effectiveness for the San Mateo County Community College District and co-chair of a district adult student career development program called ACCEL.

Robert Nakamoto

Robert Nakamoto, dean of Social Sciences at Chabot College, helped develop its movement learning community, which emphasizes ethnic studies and the learning of Chabot’s various identities on campus. Nakamoto is also a first-generation community college graduate and seeks to help underrepresented students graduate from community college as he did.

Lauren Servais

Lauren Servais, dean of Arts and Humanities at College of Marin, She said she is seeking to provide students with a sense of community and pride in that community as she has for hers, which is Hawaiian. She has also worked for Cascadia Community College in Washington and for Santa Rosa Junior College. Through the California Community Colleges’ Success Network, which seeks to update curriculums with classes on equity and diversity, she created two online classes, Equity 101 and 102, which teach the basics of the importance of equity.

Lori Silverman

Lori Silverman, dean of the STEM Division at Ohlone College, created its Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement  program, which serves first-generation and low-income STEM students. CSM’s website said she secured $10 million in funding from various organizations to help support student graduation.

Elvin T. Ramos

Elvin T. Ramos, dean of Social Sciences and Humanities at De Anza College, also served as the associate dean of Academic Affairs at the University of the District of Columbia Community College. He founded Global Tassels, which seeks to help first-generation and underrepresented students be successful in college, serving as its president from 2014-2020.